Fox Business and the Concert Biz

This morning I was interviewed on Fox Business News. My first live television interview! It sure was an interesting experience. It was just me sitting alone on a stool in the Fox Business Network offices in West Los Angeles with a very nice man who wired me up and monitored me while I spoke to invisible hosts. They were in NY and I was just patched in. It was really weird, but boy do I have a new appreciation for those remote guests you see on The Today Show or who appear on the big hanging screen on Real Time with Bill Maher.

The interview was extremely quick, It might have lasted 2 minutes at most. And they confused my profession by saying that I was a concert promoter, but I politely corrected them and answered their questions.

If you want to see it, it's streaming HERE.

That said, I was prepared with so much more information. They had sent me a list of questions to see if I really knew what I was talking about and I answered them in a manner that must have been appropriate because they asked me on the show. But most of them never got asked. So, I figured I'd share their questions and my answers with you because otherwise they just die and that would suck. Ha!

As I did with my last blog post about the Mediabistro panel in NYC, here are the questions and the answers - which are really just my opinions on the state of the US live festival circuit in this current economic downturn.

• How are concert festivals being hit by the recession?

Like everything that costs money, even concert festivals are being hit. Going to a concert is a luxury. To many it is incredibly important to them, but it is still not as important as food, clothing, and shelter. A festival concert ticket can cost anywhere from $50 to $350 which is not a nominal sum. It is not surprising at all that concert festivals are being hit hard.

• Have some festivals looked into giving recession discounts?

I don’t know that they’ve looked into giving discounts, but I do know that several have taken steps to keep prices down or even stagger payments. For example the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals offer layaway plans which allow people to pay for their tickets in installments. According to Paul Tollett, the founder of both of those festivals, 24% of the people who bought tickets to Stagecoach opted for the layaway plan. And that is thousands of people.

For the Vans Warped Tour, the longest running touring festival, they’ve consistently offered the lowest price (usually under $30) and the most entertainment. For $30 you get to see over 50 bands over a 6 or 7 hour period. Plus they offer the opportunity to buy your tickets in advance, pay less fees, and get a compilation CD for less than the price you’d pay at the box office.

• Will this change the way they operate business?

A few years ago there were only a few major festivals. Coachella being the standout. Then Bonnaroo came. Coachella was west coast based and attracted an eclectic peaceful crowd literally from all over the world. They created an environment that was reminiscent of the European music festivals like Glastonbury and Reading. Bonnaroo on the other hand drew from a “jam band” and jazz-type environment featuring acts like Phish and Dave Matthews. Both could live independently and do extremely well. But last year there were countless festivals and many featuring the same bands. If people can see the same bands closer to home, then they won’t travel. Thus, the competition has started to cause declining ticket sales. Add the economy issue and you’ve got trouble.

So yes, it will change the way they operate. There need to be fewer festivals. Each has to be special and offer something beyond just music, an overall experience like at Coachella and Bonnaroo. Each has to address the price of the ticket and the cost of getting to the event and creatively figure out solutions. Coachella offers a free train ride to the Palm Desert and layaway ticket plans. Others will likely do similar things.

• Will events book fewer guests with bigger names or vice versa?

No. If the event is going to exist, it has to maintain it’s integrity. The best and biggest festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits will not change the amount of bands or the level of bands. If you look at the caliber of talent this year which includes Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen playing festivals, you can see that this isn’t changing. The big names bring in one group of people, but the core attendees go every year because they get exposed to so many new and younger bands. And they love the overall experience.

• What caused the festival (Langerado) to close?

Competition and the Economy. The economy is definitely the primary factor. At $150 a ticket, there are way too many people that are out of work or may be out of work that need that $150 for other more important things. The competition leads the consumer to believe that they can either see the same bands somewhere else, or maybe next year instead. I’m sure there is a lot of, “I’ll sit this year out and hopefully go next year” being said.

• Can other festivals be expected to follow suit?

I believe that we’ll see fewer new festivals being created for the next couple of years that is for sure. I also think we’ll see a few more festivals from last year not reappear this year. The big ones will still exist, but like I said, you’ll see fewer major festivals crop up.

• Is this a phenomenon limited to this current recession?

No, this was bound to happen because there was too much competition and too many options for people. 5 years ago there were really only a few festivals, but last year there were tons. We were bound to see fewer festivals.

But the current recession is the reason it is happening right now.

• How can the business continue to be profitable in a fluctuating economic climate?

By standing out from the crowd and offering tremendous value for the customer. Each festival needs to address these concerns:

1. Is price an issue? If so, what can we do about it? Can we lower the price? If we can’t lower the price, what value adds can we put on top of the ticket price so that the customer feels like they are getting more than they got last year?
2. Make it easy. Travel is an issue. Not only do you have the ticket price, but you have to consider gas, food, lodging. What can you do to help with this? If you don’t want to lower the ticket price, perhaps camping fees can be eliminated. Or better hotel deals can be found. Perhaps lower or free food and beverage can be figured out. Maybe a sponsor can cover these costs.
3. Why this festival? Each festival has to distinguish itself. It is more than just music. Every festival now has similar music, so what makes each stand out? Films, art, food?

Mediabistro Panel in NYC

Hard to blog this week because I was traveling. I was in NYC moderating a Media Bistro panel called, "Digital Marketing in a Downturn: How To Get Results Now and Build a Base for the Future."

I had a great panel including Shiv Singh (VP Social Media, Avenue A/Razorfish), Lee "Chappy" Chapman (Director of Strategy - Building & Consumer Markets, Translation LLC), Paul Borgese (Emerging Markets, Associated Press Digital), and Sean Cowan (VP North American Advertising Sales, JumpTap Inc.).

From left: Moderator Larry Weintraub of Fanscape; Translation LLC's Lee "Chappy" Chapman; The Associated Press' Paul Borgese; JumpTap's Sean Cowan; and Razorfish's Shiv Singh being introduced by AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven

Since I always like to be transparent, here is what I had prepared for the panel...

My intro was this:

The way the consumer absorbs media is changing at a breakneck pace. How people interact with each other through new forms of what is known as Social Media is evolving at an equally frenetic pace. For an advertiser and a marketer, it is extremely challenging to get that target customer to pay attention to their clients’ message.

This was happening on its own.

Then the economy tanked.

So now we have the additional task of getting that customer to care when they have less money to spend and we have less money to reach them.

What do we do?

That is what we are going to talk about tonight.

The topic is Digital Marketing in a Downturn: How to Get Results Now and Build a Base for the Future

We’re going to address the topic’s main two points:

1. How to Get Results Now
2. How to Build a Base for the Future

I want to start by having each panelists quickly explain who they are, what they do, and how they relate to this topic.

I’ll start.

My name is Larry Weintraub, I run a company called Fanscape.

Just so I didn't forget my own "pitch" I jotted down these notes about what Fanscape does:

Fanscape

• Digital Engagement Marketing Agency
• Means we do Word of Mouth Marketing for our clients

• We get hired by brands and brand agencies to specifically drive awareness about a brand’s products through direct conversational and social media marketing on the web.

• To break that down and make it even easier to understand, we get hired to foster dialogue about a product at 3 different levels:

1. Gatekeeper level – Websites, major blogs, portals, etc.
2. Influencer level – which may be a blogger or a person that has hundreds or thousands of followers on their Facebook or YouTube page.
3. Individual level – which means literally one to one conversations in message boards, blog responses, wikis, etc.

Then I turned it over to each panelist to introduce themselves and tell who they are, what they do, and how they relate to the topic.

After they finished, these were the questions I asked (most of them anyway):

Getting Results (Now)

1. Reaching the Customer via Digital Marketing

• Shiv: Your beliefs / methodology on how to do it (the critical components of a Digital / Social Media Marketing campaign) /Can you give us an example of something you worked on to exhibit that process
• Chappy: Your perspective and an example
• Sean: With a mobile marketing perspective, what is the methodology you use and can you give us an example of something you or your company has done
• Paul: Your perspective and an example

2. Is there an example of a great Digital marketing campaign that you have witnessed or studied that was not yours, but important to the space?

3. Is there an example of a bad Digital marketing campaign and what can we learn from their mistakes? What might you do differently if you were in charge?

4. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, iPhone Apps, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Which web2.0 tools (Social networks, technology, mobile, etc.) are you most excited about and how can they be leveraged to support a marketing and/or advertising campaign?

5. Does Digital Marketing work in tandem with traditional media (print, tv, radio)? If so, how? And, can you give us an example of how to properly use one to influence the other?

6. Costs / Budget
What should a Digital marketing campaign cost?
Knowing this is a broad question, can you give an example of a campaign you worked on and what the approximate cost was

• Shiv and Chappy – you can be vague on stating client name, but the point of this question is to give the room a general understanding of the cost of a digital marketing campaign
• Sean – this is a good chance for you to explain how JumpTap makes money, the costs associated, etc.
• Paul – Knowing you deal with the publisher side, perhaps you can explain the costs on the other side or from a different perspective

7. Can you relate those costs to a traditional media or “offline” campaign – meaning either:

• Results: $ spent on Digital Marketing performed X and $ spent on traditional performed Y
• Ratio: The amount spent on the digital portion was X% of the overall budget yet drove Y% of the results (traffic, purchase, etc.)

8. Measurement - Measuring results is easier than ever because of great analytical tools and resources, but are we measuring the right things?

• Can you give the audience an idea of how you measure your marketing or advertising efforts?
• Media planners still look for CPMs, CPCs, CPAs, but this doesn’t always show the actual results or impact, what are your thoughts on measurement methods?
• Do you see an evolution in brands moving to new forms of accepted measurement?

Building a Base for the Future (tomorrow)

1. If you are a brand that has not yet embraced a proper Digital / Social Media / Mobile Marketing plan, or is just dabbling, what would be the first 3 things you would do and why?

2. At a Fortune 500 company, what department should oversee the company’s Social Media strategy?

3. What’s next? Can you see trends on the horizon?

4. What brands are missing the boat (give a specific example)? What would you do if you were in charge?

That was my prep for the panel. Since I was caught up in the moment, I didn't take notes on all of the responses, but from this blog post I found, looks like someone else was. Read HERE what was said and you can even watch a video interview all of the panelists did after the show.

Gatorade and the Holy Grail

Was watching the NBA Allstar game pre-game festivities and saw a Gatorade commercial which was a parody of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The commercial blew because it was too short, but I went to the website and found the full version. It's pretty ridiculous, but since the Holy Grail is one of my favorite movies of all time, I found this quite entertaining. But still ridiculous.

Watch this and if you are like me, you'll be saying to yourself the whole time, "this must have cost a fortune!" If you've never seen The Holy Grail, this will seem utterly stupid; you have to know the film.

Enjoy



(If you don't see the above video player, here's the link: http://www.missiong.com/video/The-Quest-for-G)

What to Do

In response to my article the other day in iMedia, several people have asked me what else they can do to market themselves or their company. Specifically, they want to know which of the social networks they should use.

Here are my 5 top line thoughts:

1. A) LinkedIn is the best PERSONAL social network tool for business. Meaning that it is the best way to promote yourself. Now, as a company, I want to make sure all of my employees are up on LinkedIn and I want to make sure their commentary about the company is fairly similar, but with their own flair. If people are researching my company, I want them to know that they can look up individual employees to find out more about us.

1. B) LinkedIn for your business - Create a group, a thought leadership organization about your specific skill. For example, I wouldn't necessarily start a Fanscape Group, I'd start a Digital Word of Mouth Marketing group. I'd be the founder and I'd lead the discussions, so that people can always refer back to me, but I'd do it in a thought leadership manner.

1. C) LinkedIn for your business (cont.) - I still recommend having a company group as well. This is more about having your employees bond together and exchange information between them. This is public, so people can peer into your company, but more of a transparent internal tool than an external one.
   
   
2. Company and Leader Blog - Every company should have a blog. It should either be added to by multiple members of your company if they have a strong voice, or run by you, the "Leader." Start this immediately and know that it may take many months to catch on. Which is ok. When people come to your blog, they want to know that it has been running a while and it didn't just start yesterday, so it takes time. This is a great way to talk about issues both at your company and in your space. Don't make this just a place to highlight your business. You need to use this as a place to show off your knowledge of the space and actually discuss things going on in the world that relate to your field. For example, if you were in the music or concert world right now, you would have to address your thoughts on the whole merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation. If you were in the financial space, you would need to address the stimulus package and what it means to you and your customers.
   
   
3. Facebook - I believe Facebook is more of a personal tool. It is a place to connect with friends and family. Show pictures, add widgets, play games, etc. That said, you should still have a Facebook page for your company. Put some general information about your company, enough to entice people to learn more and then point them to key destinations such as your website, your blog, and your LinkedIn page. Think of it this way, Facebook is the fun version of LinkedIn. For the serious side, point people to LinkedIn, for the fun side, the side where you let your hair down, point them to your Facebook page.
   
   
4. Twitter - To properly use Twitter, you need to make it personal. Do not set up a Twitter account and then just "tweet" about things your company is doing. No one will follow you. Consider Twitter a mini version of your blog. (Twitter is considered a "microblog"). The best example of a company utilizing twitter is Zappos.com. Tony the CEO tweets all day long about a million things, rarely if ever related to his core business of shoes. He's just showcasing his thought leadership and letting you inside his world, which is really cool and over 75,000 people are following him. Does it sell him more shoes? Not directly. But the aggregate of his blog, twitter account, and overall "vibe" of the company definitely make him stand out way above his competition and thus sell him more shoes.
   
   
5. MySpace - Have a page here about your company, but consider MySpace as a virtual brochure about your company. Just have a simple page with some information, but you'll ultimately link people back to your other outlets like your actual website, your company or leader blog, and your LinkedIn page.

Other areas to consider are: YouTube and Flickr for your videos and photos. Create "Channels" and put some branding to your pages. And if you can get it to stick, put up a Wikipedia page too (may not stick because it's quirky like that)

Finally, know this. Many of these things work together. For example, when I post a new blog entry, I have it set up so that it feeds into my Twitter which feeds into my Facebook "status." The blog also automatically updates to my LinkedIn and Plaxo (another variation of LinkedIn) pages.

Hope that helps.

My Day at the UGCX Conference

(I'm writing this in between sessions and along the way, so that is why the timeframe is kind of weird)

I'm here in San Jose, waiting for my turn to speak at the first annual UGCX Conference. I'm not up til 2pm or so, but I got here early to check out some of the other panels, which I rarely do. I just watched Bruce Livingstone (CEO) and Kelly Thompson (COO) from iStockphoto give the opening keynote. I like the dual / tagteam keynote. They announced that iStockAudio launches on Wednesday. Good quote too: "Be prepared for feedback and be prepared to change course."

Next I'm attending the panel titled, "Can Money be Made in UGC Rich Media in a Recession," mainly because Tim Kring (hard to see, but he's the guy in the photo just to the left of the moderator), the guy who created Heroes is on the panel. Also on the panel is Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online and Jim Greer, CEO of Kongregate. I figured this would all be about Heroes, but I was wrong. The panel really stuck to the monetization of the UGC world. Jim explained that most of their money is made by advertising and Craig said his is mostly people spending money within his "world." Tim's model was a traditional television media model, but with tons of extensions (aka Transmedia) with monetized websites, products for sale, etc. Interesting panel but unfortunately I didn't get to ask my question which is how they do it with Heroes - How do they run all of those extensions; who pays for them (NBC or the show production); how many staff members to they have dedicated to those extensions? All of which will go unanswered unless I get a moment with Tim and I don't think that will happen.

My thought so far is that this is a good conference, I just wish the panels were at least 15 minutes longer so more questions could get answered. Or at least mine!

Went to the Marketing 2.0 panel after that. Good stuff. Everyone speaking to the transparency of digital communication, which I enjoy. Standout speaker in this one is Brian Solis. He's a leader in this space and boy is he an eloquent speaker. He said this memorable quote, "There is no viral marketing, just good people and good conversations. Respect the people and they will respect you."

Now sitting in the panel ready room blogging and catching up on emails. Also glancing up and evesdropping on a conversation with Craig Newmark (The Craig in Craigslist) as he prepares for his keynote.

My panel is soon. Nerves starting to kick in. Yes, I still get nervous when I speak.

How To Be a LinkedIn Superstar

I wrote an article for iMedia Connection that ran yesterday. I'm reposting here, but please check it out at iMedia too!

Published: February 09 2009

How to be a LinkedIn superstar

By Larry Weintraub

The people you meet and do business with expect you to be wired into their community. Here's how to market yourself and your business through this powerful social network.

I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn. In fact, I am constantly professing my love for LinkedIn. However, I still encounter a lot of naysayers who argue that they don't want to add another thing to their list of things. I completely understand. I took stock the other day of all the social networks that I participate in, and it totaled more than 20. I even use the social network capabilities of sites like Netflix (to see what movies my friends are watching) and Rhapsody (to share music with them).

But I put LinkedIn in a category all its own. LinkedIn is for business -- not for catching up with friends or planning family reunions. I use it solely for connecting with people I meet and interact with in business settings.

Of course, much has been written about the opportunities that LinkedIn presents to advertisers. And indeed, it is a social channel that offers plenty of opportunities for marketers looking to build their brands. But what about your own personal brand? What about you and your company's professional reputation within your industry? Whether you're on the brand, agency, or service side, marketing is all about building relationships. And in interactive marketing especially, the people you meet and do business with expect you to be wired into their community.

In an effort to do my part to keep LinkedIn legit and help out those who fear yet another social network, let me give you my tips on how to best utilize LinkedIn for you and your business.

Let me state this up front: I don't know anyone who works at LinkedIn, and I have no financial interest tied to LinkedIn becoming the next Google. I'm just a fan of the site and, more importantly, I'm a fan of the concept of a comprehensive business social network.

It all started for me several years ago when I began getting emails from business acquaintances with the subject line: "Invitation to connect on LinkedIn." For the most part, I ignored them. I spent five minutes creating a basic account and then every time someone sent me an invite, I just hit accept and never looked at it again. There was the initial wave where I got about 50 invitations over the course of a year, and then silence. For the next two years or so, I averaged maybe one a month.

But something happened in the spring of 2007. I started getting invitations more frequently. By July, I was getting several a day. LinkedIn was catching on and starting to become a standout property. It was beginning to cross the chasm that separates websites. There are plenty of trendy concepts that get a little love from the tech blogs, but only a few transcend into the mainstream. We've seen it happen with Google, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and, most recently, Twitter. LinkedIn is headed in that direction but hasn't completely become ubiquitous -- which is a good thing. (For the moment, the porn purveyors haven't mastered LinkedIn!)

In order to position yourself to leverage LinkedIn for you and your business, here are the four areas on which you need to focus.

First, understand what LinkedIn means to you personally. LinkedIn is the new resume. We all know how frustrating it can be to limit our accomplishments to two lines and hopefully keep that resume to one or two pages. If used properly, LinkedIn gives you the room and breadth to help bring your resume to life. I often say that LinkedIn allows you to tell your story and not just list bullet points of your accomplishments. After a resume has cleared my HR department and made its way to me, if I like what I see, my next step is to look at that person's LinkedIn page. LinkedIn is where I go when I want to know more about what they did at a particular company.

Second, put your photo on LinkedIn. What are you afraid of? You put your photo on your MySpace and Facebook pages. You probably have a Flickr account, and maybe you've even done some online dating. You put your photo there, so put it up on your LinkedIn page. I'm looking to see that you embrace new technology and that you are using all of its capabilities. I'm not going to judge you by that photo. I just want to know that you are a social person and not going to hide in the background.

Third, connections are important. I have a rule: Everyone that works for me needs to have at least 100 connections. Don't go and audit us, please -- I'm sure there are some delinquents. (And they know who they are!) Once again, I'm looking to see that the people at my company embrace the concept of social networking and have built up a list of contacts. It shows me experience in the workplace and the impact made on others. Yes, I run a digital engagement marketing agency that specializes in using social media. But if I were on the brand side, I'd be thrilled to see that my people have an army of contacts that might become frequent customers.

The fourth and final note pertains to the recommendations element of LinkedIn. This one is a personal beef with me. If I like you, I will recommend you. If I don't do it on my own, then ask me personally. Don't send out notes to 100 people asking for recommendations. It seems desperate and, frankly, I think it is rude. The result is that you either get a fake recommendation because the person feels obligated, or you don't get anything and you end up feeling slighted. Understand that if someone gives you a recommendation, they took time out of their busy day to think of something nice to say about you.

It goes the other way too. The recommendations you write are important. Each recommendation I write takes me about 20 minutes. I have to think about someone's best characteristics and try to say it in a way that I haven't said on other people's profiles. And it has to be good. Once it's up there, it is there for good, and people will see what I've written. They'll now not only be judging that person, but they'll be judging me. And please, for the sake of mankind, if someone writes a recommendation for you, write one back. I'm getting red in the face just thinking about the countless times I've been asked to write a recommendation without reciprocation.

If you do all these things, you are miles ahead of your competition. The world hasn't caught up yet, so do this now before everyone does.

Once you've got yourself a stellar profile, then it is time to market yourself and your company on LinkedIn. There are a number of ways to do this. If you run a business or a department, then it is critical that you embrace all the different methods available to you on LinkedIn. Here are some of my hints on how to tackle a few of them.

As a marketer, your network of contacts is a valuable source of ideas and feedback. Build up your contacts, and then communicate with them. Look, it doesn't do you any good to have 500 contacts and then ignore them. You need to communicate with them. And I mean communicate, not pester. One of the things that scare people away from LinkedIn is the thought of someone inviting them into their network and then harassing them for business or to make an introduction to a contact.

Use LinkedIn to engage and inspire. Let me give you an example: Last year I moderated a panel at the Bandwidth Conference in San Francisco, where I asked a group of young people how they consumed media (music, TV, movies, video games). I could have sat down and written out a handful of questions, but I thought to myself, "Why not crowd-source questions by asking my LinkedIn connections?" I picked out 500 people I knew would understand my topic and asked them what they would ask a young person. Within a week, 100 people fed me more than 200 questions. Yes, I just helped myself out tremendously. But more importantly, I communicated with my network.

Follow-up is equally important. In the case of the above example, I wrote every individual person a thank you note, and I promised to get them an answer to their question. After the panel, I wrote a guest blog post for Ypulse summarizing the panel. I sent a note to everyone telling them to take a look at that post. A week after that, I transcribed a recording of the panel, posted the entire document on my blog, and sent a note to all of my contacts to check it out. Add to that the countless emails that I answered as a result of this one particular event, and you can see how I maximized this opportunity to engage with my network. Plus, I did it in a non-intrusive manner with relevant and trusted content -- the best kind!

Groups
Start a group. Start a few. This is the best way to promote your company on a broad level versus the personal one that I've been explaining. If you have something to say, and you think people will want to listen, then create a group and communicate. Post your blogs, announce your press, create topics and discussions.

Make sure you invite a core group of people, including all of your employees and some of your close business associates, just to get the thing started. People will join. Trust me. Each day thousands of people search groups just looking for a source of inspiration that is relevant to them. For fun, start another group that interests you. Recently I noticed that people were starting alumni groups for their schools and their employers. So I started a group for the record company I worked at in the '90s. I have 55 members already, and I haven't done a thing to promote this yet.

Q&A
Thought leadership is incredibly important to a business. What are your specialties and what knowledge can you impart on those willing to listen? Chances are someone is asking a question that you can answer every day. Start answering. After a while, you'll become recognized as an expert. More importantly, each time you answer a question, you get your name out there and increase what's known as your "search equity" -- the opportunity for your name or company's name to come up in a search engine.

As I was writing this, I popped my name into Google. No. 1, at the top of the queue, is my LinkedIn profile, which means that anyone who wants to know about me is going to check my LinkedIn page first, so it better be good. At the end of the day, LinkedIn is a PR tool for you and your business. It is only as good as you make it. If you take some of my suggestions and explore the hundreds of other opportunities that LinkedIn offers, you'll see what I mean. You can't rest with just LinkedIn -- you need to embrace Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and other social networks as well. But if you have to focus on just one, LinkedIn is where you want to be.

Come On American Airlines!

You try to do something nice...

I'm not scared of flying, I'm just scared of being on the flight itself for hours at a time. And to top it off, I consciously choose to fly one of the most customer-unfriendly airlines, American!

Why? Because of their frequent flyer program. I'm an American Advantage junkie. I locked myself into it 20 years ago and I can't seem to tear myself away. Even though I know it's bad for me.

Is choosing your preferred airline like choosing a religion? Or a political party? I think you are born into your airline of choice? I'm pretty sure I fly American because my dad flew American.

Two weeks ago I flew to New York for a quick trip. I could have flown Virgin Airlines and gotten the "comfy seats" and the personal television and the groovy mood lighting for exactly the same price as on American. But the crack cocaine that is my frequent flyer account said, nah, don't choose comfort, choose miles. (Miles incidentally that are basically impossible to use when I want)

But something surprising happened on this particular trip. I enjoyed myself.

I sat way in the back of the plane, third to last row. I wish I could generalize and tell you that if you always sit in the back of the plane, the attendants will treat you better. But I can't. I know it's not true. But for this particular trip, Trish and Denise treated me like a king. They joked with me. They doted on me. They moved me to my own row without me even asking. And when the drink cart came back and I asked if they had anything "sweet" and "desserty" Trish slipped me a tiny bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream. Then they brought me two cookies from First Class.

I was so impressed that I asked the attendants for their names (Trish and Denise as I stated previously), and I told them I would be sending a note to American about how well I was treated.

Now I don't know how many people send American positive comments. Believe me, I've never done it before but have been tempted many times to send them hate mail. But I'd like to give American some advice if they would like to encourage more pro vs. con email.

1. Make it easy for me to find on your website. I had to dig deep to find how to send you a note to thank you. Maybe if you made this stand out us frequent flyers will actually want to say thank you more often.
2. Respond with something more than a generic response. I know you don't have time to respond to everyone, but for the love of Benji, cross reference your comments to the sender's account and realize that a double platinum customer that rarely reaches out, is probably someone you want to respond to personally.
3. Don't try to upsell me when I take the time to write you a friggin' note. I'm getting re-pissed off as I type this. If you want to reward me, give me some extra upgrade points or something. Don't tell me that I can buy an American gift card for my friends and family.

Jeez, this is common sense and easy!

January 28, 2009
Dear Mr. Weintraub:


Thank you for sending us such nice sentiments via our Customer Relations online form. Positive feedback means a lot to us as it helps us pinpoint areas of our service where we excel so we can improve our overall service.

Again, thank you. We regard every contact from a customer as a welcome opportunity to listen and learn. It is a privilege to have you as an American Airlines customer.

Consider giving them the gift of travel in 2009! Check out our American Airlines gift cards at http://www.aa.com/givetravel.


Sincerely,

Sean Bentel
Customer Relations
American Airlines